Canberra is actually quite unique. In the early 1900s when Australia federated, Sydney and Melbourne were rival cities and the country argued endlessly over which city would get the honour of being the capital. Finally, a compromise was made where a “new city” would be purpose-built as the capital, so long as it was at least 100 miles away from Sydney. The site was selected in 1908, followed by an international contest for the city’s design. Plans were selected from Chicago architects (get that!), Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion. Finally, the city was named and construction commenced in 1913. All that activity in only 15 years. Progress was slow; partially due to the Great Depression and the two World Wars – and partially disputes and ineffective governance. Finally, Parliament House was opened in 1927 and the capital was officially moved from Melbourne to Canberra. Unfortunately, there continued to be very slow progress until the 1950s when the PM (Menzies) really championed the development of the city.
Now it is a small city of 360,000 comprised of several suburbs with many parks and trees. The city, compared to other Aussie cities, is highly mobile, well-educated, safe, and young (median age is 34!). The single largest employer is the federal government. It’s criticised quite often as being boring, too spread out, and not a “real” city (“suburbs in search of a city”). However, it is quite beautiful, leafy, and set on a plateau amongst a low-lying mountain range.
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| View of Canberra from Mount Ainslie |
Needless to say, most of my company’s work in Canberra is also with the government. Almost the entire course was filled with people from our Canberra office, so I was definitely the odd man out. I also felt a bit like a party favour. They seemed almost desperate for information from the outside world and how we do projects in “the private sector”. Lots of lovely people though.
Most of the week was like any other workday. However I was staying close to the training, which was a bit in the middle of nowhere (not near the city), and I didn’t have a car. I did find a great laksa one night in the area of Dickson, kind of the Chinatown of Canberra. Hilariously, the next night I was taken to the same restaurant by some of the girls. Only in Canberra would that happen! (I didn’t have the heart to tell them).
Friday, we finished in the afternoon and I decided to hit my main attraction for the entire trip, the Australian War Memorial. This is, without a doubt, the best museum to which I have ever been. There an enormous amount of information from every single conflict in which Australia has been involved, dating all the way back to Sudan and the Second Boer War in South Africa when Australia was called up to fight with the British (as they were required to as a colony). The WWI section was under renovation, but it didn’t matter as I didn’t even get all the way through WWII. I took a 90 minute guided tour from a retired serviceman which was amazing. There are also cool aircraft and “stuff”, and the entire museum is laid out and presented extremely well. There was even a movie by Peter Jackson (LOTR) showing an aerial battle during WWI that had me on the edge of my seat! It’s in a beautiful spot just below Mount Ainslie, in direct line of sight from Parliament. It was designed this way so Parliament would look out the windows and be reminded that there are implications of their decisions. Something the US government would do well to remember.
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| Pool of Remembrance at the War Memorial |
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| WWII Casualties with poppies at the War Memorial |
Friday night I was able to catch up with some girls that I met when I participated in the Jawun program, where we worked with Aboriginal organisations in the Kimberley. Therese was my roommate in Broome and Judy was posted in the remote town of Warnum. They both live in Canberra and work for….wait for it…..the federal government. We went to an Ethiopian restaurant, my first time! It was great to catch up on all their adventures over the last year.
Saturday I had a full day planned as it was my last day (I stayed the weekend so I could do some sightseeing instead of just work stuff). I went to Floriade, a flower festival to celebrate spring; then to the Parliament House to see the House and Senate. I also squeezed in a short visit to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.
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| The "new" (current) Parliament House |
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| View from Parliament House - down to the Old Parliament House and War Memorial |
There is plenty to take in for a weekend visit, and I’m glad I went to see the capital city of the nation where I am now officially a Permanent Resident (and maybe someday a dual citizen?). However, the best part of Canberra was leaving it to come back to the beautiful Perth.
